Monthly Archives: November 2003

November 28, 2003 — John Hinderaker

More on Bush’s Visit to Baghdad

The Washington Times has a straightforward story on President Bush’s surprise Thanksgiving Day visit to Baghdad: “President Bush yesterday swooped into Baghdad for a surprise Thanksgiving Day visit with U.S. troops and, with a tear running down his cheek, said their countrymen ‘pray for your safety and your strength as you continue to defend America.’ »
November 27, 2003 — Scott Johnson

Bush in Baghdad

What a story: “The troops were getting ornery, 300 of them sitting for over an hour, waiting – for no good reason, it seemed – to get in the chow line at the Bob Hope Dining Hall at Baghdad International Airport and get their turkey dinners. “Finally, a visibly nervous U.S. administrator L. Paul Bremer III strode to the podium with Lt. Gen. Ricardo Sanchez, the U.S. military commander in »
November 27, 2003 — Scott Johnson

Saving Peewee

Dartmouth Professor Andrew Samwick, fresh off his year with the President’s Council of Economic Advisers, has drawn our attention to the Wall Street Journal’s powerful page-one story by Bryan Gurley of this past Tuesday, “For Lt. Withers, Act of Mercy has unexpected sequel.” Professor Samwick thought of the story in connection with Rocket Man’s post on “A funeral in Eagle Butte.” Professor Samwick writes that the post “reminded me of »
November 27, 2003 — Scott Johnson

Two down, five to go

Mark Steyn’s Spectator (UK) column on five more regimes that must be dealt with as part of the war on terrorism continues discussion of the issues raised by Angelo Codevilla’s essay and Deacon’s comment on it below. Steyn’s article is “These five regimes must go.” (Courtesy of Malcolm Smordin.) »
November 27, 2003 — Scott Johnson

Worth thousands of words

Jeff MacNelly died far too young in June 2000. Jonathan Burack’s thoughtful message sent me in search of a site featuring the work of the late, great creator of the immortal “Shoe” cartoon strip and its memorable cast of characters including Perfessor Cosmo Fishhawk and Senator Batson D. Belfry. As Burack recalls, MacNelly also composed editorial cartoons of incomparable wit. The “Shoe” site maintains an editorial cartoon library featuring MacNelly’s »
November 27, 2003 — Paul Mirengoff

Reflections on Codevilla’s reflections

Angelo Codevilla’s piece about the war on terrorism contains much that is worth pondering. However, his core claims — that the war on terrorism “isn’t working” and that the answer lies in letting the “locals” destroy the regimes that are the “effective cause of violence against us” — are dubious. For the proposition that the war on terrorism isn’t working, Codevilla relies on Donald Rumsfeld’s recent request that his top »
November 27, 2003 — Paul Mirengoff

An art form in a debased state

Reader Jonathan Burack finds some merit in my post yesterday about political cartoons. However, he argues that I have overstated my case against the genre: “You are correct about most editorial cartoonists today. However, this is because the art form is by and large in a very debased state. Editorial cartoons can in fact make arguments, though you are surely correct that those working today are not required to do »
November 27, 2003 — Scott Johnson

George Bush, Thanksgiving 1942

The Minneapolis Star Tribune has retrieved the letters that 18-year-old George Bush sent home to his parents while stationed in Minneapolis in 1942 learning to fly for the Navy. The letters open a window on the qualities of character that shine through his public life: “George Bush, 1942: ‘The most thanks-giving fellow here.'” During the course of what must have felt like a long Thanksgiving weekend, he wrote: “I guess »
November 27, 2003 — John Hinderaker

Happy Thanksgiving…

…to all of our readers. Here is the complete text of George Washington’s original Thanksgiving Proclamation, dated October 3, 1789: “Whereas it is the duty of all Nations to acknowledge the providence of Almighty God, to obey his will, to be grateful for his benefits, and humbly to implore his protection and favor, and Whereas both Houses of Congress have by their joint Committee requested me “to recommend to the »
November 26, 2003 — John Hinderaker

A Funeral In Eagle Butte

Many people don’t realize that American Indians are, in general, a highly patriotic group. A higher percentage of Indians serve in the military than any other ethnic group, and Indian pow-wows are patriotic affairs featuring presentation of the American flag and tributes to veterans. In today’s Minneapolis Star Tribune, columnist Nick Coleman reports on the funeral of Sheldon Hawk Eagle, a Lakota soldier in the 101st Airborne who was killed »
November 26, 2003 — Scott Johnson

Why not victory?

The Claremont Institute has posted the new essay by Angelo Codevilla from the winter 2003 issue of the Claremont Review of Books. The essay is the latest in Codevilla’s continuing series on the war: “No victory, no peace.” »
November 26, 2003 — Paul Mirengoff

Rewarding anti-semitism

From Andrew Sullivan, I learned that the infamous cartoon of Ariel Sharon eating a baby has won first prize in the British Political Cartoon Society’s annual competition. Here is the story from Haaretz, which includes the disgusting drawing. The author apparently claims to have been inspired by Goya. The real inspiration almost surely was found elsewhere. Political cartoonists tend crank out material that is even more mindlessly liberal than that »
November 26, 2003 — Paul Mirengoff

Show them what they’ve won

Tony Blankley of the Washington Times on how the passage of the Republican Party’s Medicare/prescription drug bill demonstrates that “that the political center of gravity in Washington is shifting definitively to the GOP for the first time since the pre-FDR era.” Not only have the Republicans gained control of the presidency and both chambers of Congress, but, says Blankley, they are now succeeding in “prying the cold, almost dead, Democratic »
November 26, 2003 — Paul Mirengoff

The best pitcher of my lifetime?

Thomas Boswell of the Washington Post offers this tribute to the late Warren Spahn. For once, Boswell does not significantly overstate his case — that Spahn is the best pitcher since Lefty Grove (who pitched during the 1930s). A few others have decent claims, but Spahn’s is good as any and better than most. »
November 26, 2003 — Scott Johnson

Multilateral mantras

While we’re giving thanks, we should also give thanks to Victor Davis Hanson for providing the intellectual clarity necessary to understand the war we’re in. Today’s National Review Online column presents a feast of virtues: “Multilateral mantras.” (Courtesy of Malcolm Smordin.) »
November 26, 2003 — Scott Johnson

Chain of fools

The second volume of William Manchester’s biography of Winston Churchill (The Last Lion: Alone) covers the years 1932-1940. Although Churchill’s life during those years has had many chroniclers, I’m not aware of any book that situates Churchill within the political milieu of the ’30s as comprehensively as Manchester’s. In that respect Manchester’s book seems to me a uniquely valuable resource. I’ve been rereading it for that reason, to try to »
November 26, 2003 — Scott Johnson

Giving thanks to our soldiers

Karl Zinsmeister is the gifted editor of American Enterprise magazine and a fine journalist in his own right. This morning he paints an inspiring portrait of the American soldiers serving in Iraq and extends thanks on our behalf to them for their service: “Our soldiers, our thanks.” In the gallant cast of Americans Zinsmeister mentions in the piece, I don’t find any of the reservists who’ve been yanked from their »